Yesterday I toured the Columbus Park-Prospect Hill community. Martin Wachadlo led the tour, a historical and architectural narrative.
Most of those present were residents of the neighborhood, and while Wachaldo did his best to talk about these second-generation homes, where there once stood four-story mansions dating back to 1803, coupled with the evils of vinyl replacement windows, residents such as President of the Niagara Gateway Columbus Park Association Kathleen Mecca had other things on her mind.
Mecca, along with Carol Perla and Liz Martina had more to say about what the proposed Peace Bridge Plaza would do to the neighborhood--the site of former Indian-owned land that was transformed by the well-to-do and middle class whites, then became the home of many Italians and was known as "Doctors' Row" surrounding an Olmsted Park.
The tour was an amalgam of the historical and the personal, until it became very personal. Mecca spoke of going for a short walk and taking half an hour to get back home because she knows everyone on the street. She pointed out homes that would come down, and those that would stay, standing on the edge of the new truck plaza. A five-year breast cancer survivor, she also pointed to each house that was home to breast cancer victims, five in all, one deceased, as well as those in which the inhabitants have asthma. She blames the trucks that will come closer still in the new plan.
As Mecca spoke, her anger was palpable, her resolve evident, and her outrage was clearly stated when she said, "I'm being punished by having my house left. I'll be living right next to the plaza." She added, "It's not going to happen."
Catherine Schweitzer, Executive Director of the Baird Foundation, co-chair of the Buffalo Niagara Preservation Consortium and Advisor for the NYS National Trust said that the plan for the plaza would take up to 100 structures. "Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, a third of Busti, parts of Columbus Parkway...will be gone," she said. "The definition of a neighborhood is 'The place where you go next door for 5 minutes and come back three hours later.' That's what we have here."
We went into the home of Bob, Mel and their daughter, Daisy. A home that the young family closed on just before the plaza plans were announced in October of 2007. It will be on the rim of the plaza.
We went into the home of Peter and Joanne Certo. It is a quaint and unique home with ornate woodwork, kitschy stained glass and deco style linoleum inlays in the hardwood floors, put there in the 30's. No one on the tour had ever seen this sort of floor treatment. The house would be any realtor's quick turnover. It will come down.
Another neighbor, Nicole, just purchased a home two doors down from the Certo's. "The price was right, but I don't know what will happen when they start tearing down houses and building the plaza. Maybe I'll be hanging on to my porch too," she said. She's putting money into the three-unit structure, but with much trepidation.
"We've been offered air conditioners," Mecca said, "but what about potential structural damage? What about the noise and mess?"
What may seem like a case of NIMBY may be a plea for another plan, something further down the road in a less residential area. "They have to look ahead," Wachadlo said. The historian noted," Do they think that with fuel prices rising like they are, trucks are going to be the main mode of transporting goods? The Peace Bridge wasn't built for trucks...it was built as a bridge for recreational travel. They didn't plan then, and they're not planning now. This is what's wrong with Buffalo today. In the past, everyone wanted what they wanted right then. What about the future?"
Look for video from the tour in the next few days.